


Dynamics

by AHumanFemale



Series: Dynamics [1]
Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Barisi Gift Exchange 2017, Getting Together, M/M, Prequel, casefic, mentions of rape/assault
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-19
Updated: 2017-12-19
Packaged: 2019-02-17 02:11:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13066962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AHumanFemale/pseuds/AHumanFemale
Summary: It took years of dancing around one another, years of long looks and sharp words and the promise of more, but here they were.  Drawing ever closer, not bothering to fight it anymore when at the end of the day it was each other they wanted to see.  To take the edge off, to finally exhale and release the pent up stress they carried with them on a daily basis.  Even now, even alone with the weekend ahead of them, the Omega’s presence next to him did more to ease the tension in his shoulders than the promise of a drink or a chance to sleep late ever could.Or, they finish a rough case and Rafael tries his hand at comfort.





	Dynamics

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mrbarbacarisi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrbarbacarisi/gifts).



> Merry Christmas, mrbarbacarisi.
> 
> I had previously talked about this being a multi-chapter fic, but I didn't end up finishing it in time and I didn't want to give you an incomplete gift. So here's this in the meantime - a prequel to the fic incoming in a few weeks, after all the Christmas stories have been finished. Nevertheless, I truly hope you enjoy it.
> 
> Merry Christmas and I hope you have a marvelous New Year.
> 
> xoxo, ahf.
> 
> p.s. - Thanks to Robin Hood, tobeconspicuous, and power-bottom-barba for case help and the beta. I love you all. <3

**Dynamics**

 

Victoria Steward was the picture perfect Omega. 

Petite and blonde, hair curling around her shoulders and wide green eyes turned down to her hands in deference.  Freckles in an artful spray over her nose, a blush high on her cheeks.  She dressed demurely, appeared younger than she was - maybe twenty-five to the thirty-three years she actually possessed. Anything to remind the jury of her place within their society, of the lifelong beliefs they’d held when thinking of Omegas.  She spoke with a soft voice and used words like “feel” and “care” and “worry” so that the charges against her seemed ridiculous; a political statement, a stunt by the Manhattan DA’s office to score points with the very vocal special interest groups working their way to the forefront of the national discussion. 

Kellise Cagle was the kind of Alpha who wound up in museums on canvas or carved into marble.  Tall and statuesque, with slender muscle and coffee dark skin.  She wore her eyeliner dark and her braids long and wrapped in a tight bun on the top of her head, ever the professional even on the witness stand.  Her glasses were on, undoubtedly coached by Barba to wear them to help counter the show being put on by the defense.  Kellise was taller and stronger and spoke with all the confidence of a warrior poet, articulate and direct, but people were people and it was likely that half the jury already considered her the aggressor despite the testimony she was in the process of giving. 

Sonny knew better.  

“Miss Cagle, when you requested quarterly leave from the administration at your place of employment, was it granted?” 

Barba’s tone was crisp and professional, too - not gentle, as Kellise would find it patronizing and put her on the offense.

“Objection.”

The defense attorney wasn't someone Sonny was familiar with, but he shot him a look of irritation just the same, irritated on Barba’s behalf that he was being interrupted barely two questions into his questioning.

Even if he knew Barba would’ve been pissed to know that Sonny was even remotely riled on his behalf.

“Relevance?” the defense attorney drawled, more of a question than a statement.

The judge arched an eyebrow at Barba, who kept his expression neutral, even if Sonny’s fingers curled into a fist.

“The State is establishing the background as to why Miss Cagle was in her apartment at the time of the assault,” Barba said evenly, seemingly unfazed by the interruption.  “The meaning will become clearer as we go on.”

“Overruled,” the judge said, though she also warned Barba, “Get to your point sooner rather than later, Counselor.”

Sonny let out the breath he hadn't realized he’d been holding, a breath that had nothing to do with the testimony at hand.

Barba turned back to Kellise. “Miss Cagle?” he said calmly.

“It was,” she replied in answer to his original question, voice devoid of overt emotion.  “I very rarely take allotted leave during the term, so they're happy to grant it when requested.”

“And what was this leave for, if you don't mind my asking?”

“It was… personal.”  She cleared her throat, training her eyes away from the jury and on Barba instead.  “It was for my rut.  It had been long overdue for several reasons and I saw fit to see it through this time.”

“This time?”

“I take suppressants most months,” she told him.  “I coach a highly competitive high school volleyball team and they deserve my time and full attention during the season.”

“But you decided to forgo the suppressants this time.”

“That's correct.”

“Do you always allow your rut to take place in the first month of the term?” Barba questioned further.  

“Yes.  My assistants are more than capable of handling my duties that early in the year and it allows me to function more effectively during tournament season.”

“So this is a habit,” Barba concluded.  

“That's correct.”

“A habit that you keep to yourself?” he ventured. 

“I’m never unprofessional, if that’s what you’re asking.  I don’t announce it.  It’s an unspoken understanding among my staff and employers that it’s not to be discussed, though I’m sure they know why I’m gone.”

“So, that’s your assistants and your bosses.  Anyone else who might know that about you?”

Kellise cleared her throat.  “Yes.  My partners.”

“Do you spend those days with a partner?”

“If I have one at the time.  Though only with committed partners, no flings or hookups.”  

“What do you consider a committed relationship?”

“Six months or longer, with the stipulation of exclusivity.”

“That’s reasonable.”  Barba observed, nodded as he leaned back against the prosecution’s table and Sonny had to crane his neck to see around him, even if the view was tempting.  “How long were you and the defendant, Victoria Steward, in a committed relationship?”

“Almost three years.”

“More than enough time for her to be aware of your personal preferences in this matter, then,” he supposed aloud.  

“Objection,” the defense said, less of a question this time, and Sonny shifted uncomfortably at the look on Barba’s face, the innate desire to protect battling against his knowledge that Barba could take care of himself.    It was an annoyance, not a threat, and still his back was up.  Sonny had never felt this desire so strongly, not until Barba.  Not until the only Omega Sonny had ever met who needed it least.  Not until he’d started to fall for the man who would do literally anything but welcome Sonny’s desire to defend him.

The judge gave Barba a look.  “Sustained,” she said.  “Jury will disregard.”

Barba’s expression flickered, just for a moment, before he evened it out again — before Sonny could breathe again.  “When did you end your relationship with Miss Steward?”

“May of this year,” Kellise answered and Sonny could see tension forming in her shoulders, her hands clasped tighter in her lap.  “We’d been fighting for months because Victoria wanted to move in together and I didn’t, which made me realize that we weren’t mates.  Wouldn’t ever be, at which time I felt it was a good idea to part ways and find partners better suited to us.”  

“An idea Ms. Steward didn’t share.”

“No, she didn’t.  But I’d made my decision and felt it was for the best.”

Kellise lifted her chin and Sonny shifted uncomfortably, recognizing too well the words that she spoke, the conviction she felt.  The certainty too often denied to Alphas, to those society deemed were ruled wholly by their emotions.  It was easy to dismiss any position held by Alphas because they were creatures of impulse rather than reason, only ever posturing and looking to assert themselves rather than giving extensive thought and care to matters of the heart, of the family.  Of what it meant to be a provider with people depending on them.  

“It stands to reason, then, that Ms. Steward would not have been welcome in these personal days that you took between August 23rd through the 25th.”

“That’s correct.”

“But she showed up anyway,” Barba asserted and Kellise nodded, for the first time looking something other than effortlessly composed as she started her story.  It was hard to decipher the lines around her eyes, the tense pull of her mouth, but Sonny and the rest of the squad had been with her for months so they knew by now what it looked like when she was under stress, when she was uncomfortable - she pulled in.  She kept herself crisp and professional, desperately fighting against the behavior that a good number of people would expect of her.

Dispassionate, matter-of-fact.

A demeanor that wasn’t coached into her but seemed to be a comfort as she steeled her spine and looked Barba in the eye and told him rather than the jury about how in the second day of her rut, someone had let themselves into her apartment.  Victoria Steward, using a key she was supposed to have given back months prior.  Kellise had been fielding her calls and emails for months, reinforcing her decision that it was better to see other people.  She wouldn’t budge, which drove Victoria to desperate measures - coming to Kellise in her rut, taking advantage of a time when she would be unable to consent.  It wasn’t until the next day, when her mind had cleared, that she realized what occurred.  

The thought made Sonny sick.

Someone coming to him against his will, during a period in which rational thought was not always possible - particularly if there was an Omega involved.  There would have been nothing he could do about it, his body relying on instinct and insatiable lust and it would have been too late by the time he woke up enough to realize what happened.  And still, here they were.  Arguing an Alpha’s ability to consent even in the year 2017, because really all Alphas wanted this and what were they complaining about anyway?

By the time Kellise’s testimony finished her eyes were red but she’d refused to let even a single tear fall, even detailing how she’d been provoked against her will.  Sonny was proud, wanted to congratulate her, but Olivia was next to him on the cramped bench and he could feel her shoulders tense further, her back straighten.  The rough stuff was about to start.  Barba thanked her and the defense attorney stood, looking patronizing already to get the Alpha’s instincts on guard.  

“Miss Cagle, you said before that you’d rebuffed my client’s attempts to reconcile your relationship.”

“That’s correct.”

“But if that’s true, why would Ms. Steward send this message to a friend?” he asked and directed the jury’s attention to exhibit E, a text message.  “She sent, and I quote, ‘My Kelli is taking her days off this week and I’m going to go take care of her.  It looks like things are going to work out after all.’”  He faced Kellise again, looking smug.  “Care to explain that?”

Kellise looked distinctly unimpressed.

“Unless your reading was incomplete, I fail to see how that includes my input at all.”

“This was sent two days before your leave - excitement, wanting to care for you.  Hardly the sinister plan the State has tried to portray, wouldn’t you say?”

_ Like hell,  _ Sonny thought just as Barba stood.

“Objection,” he said, loud enough for his voice to echo.

“Sustained.”

“Caring for me is not what Victoria did,” Kellise asserted, sitting up in her chair and scooting to the front of it.  Sonny flinched, silently begging her to keep her cool.  “Victoria harassed me for months, leaving voicemails and texts and emails.  She broke into my home, lied to me about giving my key back.  Then she took from me what I would have been unwilling to give were I in my right mind, in control of my thoughts and actions.”

“Miss Steward was under the impression that you were getting back together.  Did you do anything to dissuade that idea?  To make it clear that she wouldn’t be welcome there, despite having been present for those times like she had been for three years prior?”

“It’s not my job to convince her of something that was stated clearly for months.”

“My client isn’t a mind reader.”

“Nor is she an idiot.”

“She believes you to be mates,” the defense attorney countered, although he looked rankled now.  He had clearly been hoping to provoke more of a reaction than what he was getting.  “You trusted my client’s judgment for years, Miss Cagle.  As all Omegas are trusted in these matters.  Shouldn’t you endeavor to trust it again, even if the circumstances were less than ideal?”

“Objection,” Barba said again and now Sonny heard temper in his voice.  “Is counsel trying to defend his client or act as a marriage counselor?”

“Sustained.  Keep your advice to yourself, Counselor.”

“Let me rephrase,” he started again with a sugar-sweet smile.  “In the course of your relationship, had Ms. Steward ever abused you?”

“No.”

“Betrayed your trust?”

“No.”

“Lied, manipulated, took without permission?”

“No,” Kellise maintained.  

“So you’re expecting us to believe that you would trust this woman for years, spend your lives together for all of that time, and then just… change your mind?”  His tone was incredulous and showy not, and Sonny dared a look at the jury - three of whom were shaking their heads.  “Decided you didn’t love her after all, decide she wasn’t welcome in your ruts.  Decide that she was a rapist for doing what she has always done for you in that time?”

There it was - the argument destined to be brought up.

Alphas were fickle, impulsive.  

Known for aggression, for violence.  For needless posturing and snap decisions and a complete unwillingness to control their urges, making them unreliable at best and outright dangerous at worst.  It was supposition every Alpha in existence had to fight against, had to contradict with every word and action so that one day the tide might change.  It was what had been used to discourage Sonny from the priesthood, encourage him into the police academy.  It was what had landed him in Homicide for years and kept him from SVU - at least until Olivia Benson went to bat for him, brought him onto the squad.  Gave him a chance to prove himself.  

It was also what was being used to turn Kellise’s rape into something it wasn’t.

The defense was transforming this into an iteration of the age-old Alpha downfalls.  In a fit of impulse - because she’s an inconstant Alpha who was on the prowl for someone else - decided to put an end to their relationship after it had been proven successful for three years prior.  Still, though, the Omega did her best to keep them together and the Alpha woke up from her rut in a fit of temper because she’s been weak, given in to her urges.  Decided to take it out on the person who was doing her best to be faithful, to fulfill her duty.  

Could an Alpha even  _ be  _ raped?  

Omegas weren’t  _ capable  _ of raping someone, it wasn’t in their nature.

Luckily the Alpha on the stand wasn’t willing to play along.

“I didn’t just change my mind,” she asserted, voice strong in the quiet courtroom even as her eyes betrayed her anger.  “Our relationship ended months previously and it was a decision I maintained even up until the week before my rut.  When she called me, wanting to reconcile.  An offer I declined because I didn’t think it was for the best - which is within my right as a human being.  To say no, to have a choice in who I’m with and why.”

“No one is accusing you of not being human.”

Her glare was volatile.  “Aren’t they?”

The attorney knew a lame horse when he saw one and moved on quickly.

“You said you spoke a week before?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“And my client wanted to reconcile.”

“Yes.”

“Which you said you declined,” he continued.  “Now, we don’t have transcripts of that conversation but are you sure you made it clear enough?  Because I have to take your attention back to that message we discussed earlier.  My client came out of the conversation believing you two were going to work out.”

“I can’t speak for your client’s auditory comprehension,” she shot back.  “Not for her judgement.”

“A week is a lot of time, Miss Cagle,” he suggested kindly.  “Lots of things can change.  All those hormones rattling around, mixing up.”

“I’m aware.”

“So whose judgment is really in question here?”

“Objection!”

“Withdrawn.  That’s all, Miss Cagle.” 

The man smirked like he’d scored points and Sonny had to fight to keep his own temper in check, particularly at the dejected look on Kellise’s face as she was dismissed from the stand and stepped down.  She came to sit next to Fin and they all spared her encouraging glanced, as though that would be enough to soothe the injustice of being told that your rape wasn’t really rape because the attacker didn’t think it was.  Still, she settled back in and the State rested.  Next was the defense, smug as he called the defendant to the stand.  

The defendant who kept her eyes trained on the floor as she approached and was sworn in.  She flattened her skirt against her legs as she sat, sparing a smile at her parents in the gallery and her victim beside Fin.  The only reaction out of Kellise was a low rumble of disapproval and Fin leaned in to whisper something in her ear - something comforting, Sonny hoped, because it was unlikely the next few minutes were going to get any better.  

Victoria’s lawyer looked like someone who mugged for a billboard photo but seemed fairly adept despite it, very successfully playing up the meek Omega act they were clearly relying on to convince the jury that Victoria Steward didn’t have a single malicious thought in her head.  She met Kellise at friend’s wedding, had fallen hard.  It had been three blissful years, the infatuation never fading for her even when things got rocky over living arrangements. Their separation wasn’t permanent, Victoria insisted with a small smile and dabbed at her eyes with an embroidered linen handkerchief.  It was to take a small break, to evaluate who they were before going forward.  To make sure they lasted.  It was always understood that the separation was temporary and they were meant to be together.  She had emails between the two of them from the months and years before their breakup, with Kellise swearing her love for Victoria and vice versa.

Quite a show, Sonny admitted to himself, even if he was grinding his teeth together at the way Barba gripped his pen and wrote way too hard on his legal pad.  The prosecutor was gunning for his chance at the woman and finally got it when her on attorney stepped aside, thanking her for her bravery in what had to be such a jarring experience.  

Olivia scoffed next to him and he was inclined to agree.

“Ms. Steward, as an Omega, are you smarter than the rest of the population?”

Barba’s first question - launched at her before he’d even stood from his chair - was clearly a surprise, Victoria responding first with widened eyes and an obvious recoil.

“I- um.  I don’t think so?” she offered unsurely.

“Do you have any inclinations toward the supernatural?” Barba continue.  “Some kind of extra sense or telepathy?”

“Objection!  Your Honor, this is ridiculous-”

“Sustained,” the judge intervened and Barba shrugged as though the interruption hardly mattered.  “Make your point or move on, Mr. Barba.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.  I thought the defense had managed to argue that Omegas were somehow able to access some kind of universal truth the rest of the world don’t have access to,” he said, feigning innocence. “I mean, Ms. Steward herself has said that he knew they were going to be together regardless of how Kellise Cagle felt at the time.”

“I just meant-”

“You just meant that you intended to get your way regardless of how your former partner felt about it,” Barba finished and withdrew it before the defense could have it thrown out.  “Last I checked, Alphas still maintained bodily autonomy.  Still able to take themselves to the doctor, still able to open their own checking accounts.  So why is it, do you think, that you chose to start making all Miss Cagle’s decisions for her regardless of how she felt about them?”

“That wasn’t how she felt.  Not really.”

“Oh, and we’re back to telepathy.”

“That’s not-”

“Not what, Miss Steward?”  It was Barba’s turn to be too-nice, too-polite.  Patronizing.  “Not what you meant when you took all of Miss Cagle’s rebuffs and decided to ignore them?  Not what you meant when you decided to keep a copy of her key without her knowledge?”

“That was the key she gave me two years ago.”

“No,” Barba said, standing finally.  “It wasn’t.  I’d like to turn the jury’s attention to exhibits L and M.  Miss Steward, what do you see on the left hand of the screen?”

“A key.”

“That would be the spare key Miss Cagle gave you in the course of your relationship, which she said was returned to her about two weeks before her assault.  It’s been hanging on a key ring since then.”  He turned, smiled wide in a way that sucked all the humor out of it.  “The key on the right is the one you had on your person when you were arrested.  Did Miss Cagle give you two spare keys?”

The Omega shifted in her chair and her eyes narrowed at Barba - the first hint of temper she’d shown in weeks of investigation.  

“No.”  She cleared her throat and tried to laugh, even if it sounded hollow.  “I must have made myself a copy months ago and forgotten about it.  So much going on, you know.”

“Mmm, I don’t think so,” he said and pulled up another image on the screen.  Sonny recognized it instantly, remembering well just how long it had taken him to go through a search history as lengthy and infuriating as Victoria’s.  “This would be exhibit N.  Ms. Steward, do you recognize this?”

“No, I don’t.”

“It’s your search history on your phone and your laptop, separated by date.  Fairly innocuous at first,” he admitted, pointing out the first few lines.  “Back in June and July some of the notable hits were, ‘how to bring up touchy subjects with your Alpha’ and ‘how to get back with an ex’.  The search history you might expect following the dissolution of a long-term relationship.”

“It wasn’t a dissolution.”

“Of course it wasn’t.  Otherwise this search for ‘how to copy a key’ would seem out of sorts, wouldn’t it?”  Sonny couldn’t see Barba’s expression anymore but suspected it would be something approximating predatory as he circled the unsuspecting woman on the stand.  “This came two days after one of the emails you so courteously shared earlier, the one where you professed your love for Ms. Cagle and asked when you’d see each other again.  The message wasn’t returned, if I’m not mistaken.”

Victoria said nothing, biting her lip with her eyes narrowed in Barba’s direction.

“The story changes from that point on,” Barba said, flipping the screen to the next image.  “Gone are the relationship guides, the self help advice.  Now your searches focus on foods and herbs to strengthen your natural pheromones, how to make a synthetic pheromone spray to emulate a heat.  Hedging your bets, Ms. Steward?”

“I wanted to be alluring,” she defended.  “It’s no different than putting on lipstick or perfume.”

“Except those items wouldn’t cloud an Alpha’s senses beyond the ability to give consent, would they?”

“Objection!”

“Withdrawn,” Barba said over his shoulder, hardly pausing for the interruption as he changed the screen again.  “How about this search, Ms. Steward?  Was this to make yourself more alluring?”

The words flashed big and bold over the screen.

**_How to improve chances of conception during a rut._ **

Barba was downright pleasant now, something Sonny rarely saw from him unless he was about to wipe the floor with some unsuspecting sap.  

“Now, I realize on its own that this search is fairly innocuous.  And Alpha and Omega, together for several years.  Looking to grow their family.”  Victoria didn’t look like it was innocuous at all - she looked like she was pretty close to tapping out.  “But the very next search seems a little out of place, don’t you think?  What reason would a happy Omega hoping to be pregnant have for researching the Prentiss Act?”

Sonny could feel all of the air get sucked out of the room, as even the jurors previously dismissive during Kellise’s testimony sit forward and tune in.  

The Prentiss Act had been signed into law nearly a century earlier, in the first Great Depression when Alphas had left their families en masse in hopes of finding work elsewhere.  Some, though, never came back and never sent anything back for their families so Congress signed into law an order that would require them to remain with their Omegas and provide for them so long as the children were younger than ten were in the picture.  It hadn’t been used for much more than assuring alimony in decades but there it was, on that screen for everyone to see.  Victoria Steward was on display, too, flushed a mottled shade of puce now with her hands gripping the partition in front of her.

“That’s- I mean, that’s not-”

“Not what you meant?” Barba asked, audibly amused.  “Oh, I don’t know how much longer you can claim that, Ms. Steward.  Because here it is, lined out.  You wanted to get back together with your Alpha and couldn’t, so you made another plan.  One that involved copying a key you were supposed to give back, one that involved deception with pheromones and the hopes of pregnancy - just so you could keep Ms. Cagle with you against her will, relying on a law written decades ago.”  

Not a word left the Omega’s lips but a find tremor had started two seats down from Sonny - Kellise, hands gripping her purse much too tight.  Undoubtedly thinking of all the ways this could have gone even more wrong than it had.  

“You know what I think, Ms. Steward?” Barba started in again and now Sonny could smell the blood in the water.  The faint sulphur of Victoria’s fear, the spice of Barba’s triumph.  “I think you’ve led a privileged life.  Your parents are wealthy, you got into your first choice school.  Got a swanky position at your mother’s nonprofit without even having to interview.  I don’t think anyone in your life has ever told you no.  Until six months ago, when Kellise Cagle ended your relationship and refused to change her mind.  Until you’d been forced to stage an assault when she would be weak, vulnerable.  Unable to consent.  Hoping you’d get pregnant and force her to stay with you even when you knew she didn’t want you anymore.”

“SHE DOES WANT ME!”

The outburst was sudden and deafening, everyone jumping in their seats even as it faded to nothing more than an echo.  

Behind the witness stand Victoria had gone stock-still, her homemade handkerchief torn in two.  Her face was dark with temper and her eyes were feral.  Sonny couldn’t help the tension that took him over, the adrenaline that threaded through every vein and artery as he scented danger in the air.  The bailiff must have felt it, too, because he stepped a little closer and moved his hand to his belt - not that Victoria noticed at all.  She was too busy baring her teeth at Rafael, petite frame held taut and shaking.

“What was that, Ms. Steward?” Barba asked softly.

“She wants me.  Kellise does want me.  She’s just confused, just too caught up with work.  Too stupid to know what’s good for her, how good I am for her,” the Omega seethed.  

“That’s not your choice to make, though, is it?” Barba asked.  “Her choice was to end things with you.  You didn’t listen.”

“I don’t have to listen.  What does an Alpha know about family, anyway?  Nothing.  They know  _ nothing _ ,” she replied and didn’t seem to be aware of how quiet the room was now.  “They exist to fight and to fuck while  _ I _ have to worry about family and a home.  They don’t get to make that decision.  She doesn’t get to tell me no.”

“Except yes she does, and yes she did,” Barba added.  “This was never about love or destiny or bonds to you, was it?  This was about a woman leaving you - a woman you wanted, rejecting you for the first time in your life.”

“She didn’t  _ reject _ me!”

“Your Honor, I need a recess,” the defense finally piped up, looking haggard while Victoria blinked and slowly seemed to realize what she’d done.  

“I imagine you do,” the judge snarked and granted it, even as Victoria started to stammer and ask to keep going.  To keep trying to explain what she meant, and how it wasn’t what she just made it sound like even as her lawyer approached Barba and the word  _ deal  _ was in the air before they’d shared a single word.  Victoria kept trying but was promptly ignored.  It was too late - the damage was done.  

 

**…**

 

Sonny was restless and tired by the time court adjourned for the day, the recess extending longer than necessary because Barba was in the middle of working out a deal that ensured Victoria Steward would be on the registry.  Would serve time, even, which was unlikely to be much more than two years but it was still more than they would have gotten with the wrong juror holding out because of traditional secondary gender roles.  It was a gamble they’d lost too often not to be gunshy about it, and Sonny didn’t blame Barba a bit for taking the sure thing.  He was sure Fin and Olivia had given Kellise the same information and Sonny found himself hoping she could draw comfort from that, even if the punishment wouldn’t come close to fitting the crime.

Seven years he’d been working SVU and it didn’t get any easier.

Like it hadn’t been hard enough for him to get his foot in the door - an Alpha doing work that required compassion was frowned upon already.  Then he got to spend all his days hearing how Alphas weren’t suitable to make their own decisions?  To have their own ideas about how and when to have a family, to recognize a mate?  That they were monsters, animals who fed on violence and lustful impulse rather than their minds and hearts like everyone else on the planet.  He knew he was doing the right thing in this line of work, knew he was protecting people and putting the real monsters away, but there were days he wished he’d taken his mother’s advice and gone into the military like all the other Alphas in his graduating class.

“Detective,” a dearly familiar voice started behind him, drawing him out of the darkening swirl of his thoughts, “I’m surprised to find you here so late.”

Sonny turned, finding Barba with his briefcase in one hand and his coat in another.  Looking tired but accomplished; the lines were deeper around his eyes but his shoulders and tone were light.  Negotiations gone well, he’d imagine, and found himself relaxing a little at the thought.  If Barba was good, he could be too.

“Didn’t mean to be,” Sonny replied.  “Started thinking and didn’t stop, I guess.”

“Hard to do when it’s been awhile since the last time you tried it,” Barba offered playfully and Sonny couldn’t help the affectionate eye roll that came afterward.  “Something in particular on your mind?”

Where to start?

“Just things in general,” he said instead, ever the diplomat.  Unwilling to put his own concerns on Barba even if the man was offering.  

“I see.  Well, if your ‘things’ can be abandoned for a little while I was going to have a drink in my office before heading out.  You’re welcome to join me, if you want.”

“Scotch?”

Barba narrowed his eyes.  “Are you about to give me flack for not keeping a six pack in my office?”

“You do have room for a refrigerator in there.  Just saying.”

“Never mind.  Go to a bar, drink fermented yeast.  I’ll be in my office drinking something suitable for human consumption.”

Sonny grinned and the distaste on Barba’s face softened - just a hair.  Just enough to know that Sonny was still welcome, was still desired company even after a long day in court and a hellishly long week that came before it.

“I guess I’ll make do,” Sonny offered and relished the scoff and shake of Barba’s head before turning and leading them back into the courthouse.  

They walked side by side, shoulders brushing.  

Luckily they were long past the point in their relationship where they tried to pretend the touch wasn’t welcome or was something out of the ordinary.  It took years of dancing around one another, years of long looks and sharp words and the promise of more, but here they were.  Drawing ever closer, not bothering to fight it anymore when at the end of the day it was each other they wanted to see.  To take the edge off, to finally exhale and release the pent up stress they carried with them on a daily basis.  Even now, even alone with the weekend ahead of them, the Omega’s presence next to him did more to ease the tension in his shoulders than the promise of a drink or a chance to sleep late ever could.

“Today must have been difficult,” Barba said suddenly, surprising him.  “Hearing over and over how little your feelings matter in the grand scheme of things.  Hearing how little people think of you.”

Sonny scoffed.  “Well, I would say that you get used to it, but…”

“Getting used to it would be worse.”

“Exactly.” 

“Expectations for Omegas are different, I think,” Rafael observed as they loaded into the elevator.  “All the stereotypes run to the positive.  I’ve only ever been accused of being nicer than I actually am, more nurturing.”

“Someone referred to you as nurturing?!”

“I know.  The slander,” he commented with a sly smile.  “It’s different for you, I imagine.  There’s no such thing as the benefit of the doubt.”

“Not so much, no,” Sonny sighed in return.  “Once, when I was a kid, I played a lot with another kid down the street from my grandparents’ house.  He was a Beta and had the best damn comic book collection I’d ever seen in my life.  We read them for hours and one afternoon we decided to try and act them out.  Stupid kid stuff, right?  We jumped off the roof of his shed about three dozen times saying we could fly.”

He smiled at the memory, leaning back against the elevator wall.  

“Well, somewhere around three dozen and four, he got dizzy and took longer moving out of the landing zone.  I’d already jumped and saw him there but couldn’t do much about it other than yell and warn him to move, which only brought his parents running out of the house just in time for me to land on his arm.  Broke it clear in two,” he told Barba with a grimace, thinking back to the crisp snap of bone as he’d landed.  “It was an accident, just kids being stupid.  I was apologizing faster than I could take in air to do it and they just swept him up away from me, back toward the house.  His dad gave me a real dressing down, forbid me from ever coming back.”  

He looked over at Barba, who was uncharacteristically silent.  Waiting, watching.  Unconsciously moving closer, into the warmth of Sonny’s body.  

“You know what I heard his mom say just before they got into the house?” Sonny asked quietly and Barba shook his head.  “She said, and I quote, ‘I don’t know what we expected, letting him play with an Alpha.’” 

“It was an accident,” Barba argued, as though this was court.  As though he could convince scared parents from twenty-five years earlier of Sonny’s innocence.

“No such thing as accidents with us,” he said and it sounded more accepting than he felt.  “Not many things we’re good for, either.  We’re here to breed and break things and not much else.”

Barba’s mouth opened, perfect lips opening and closing absently as he grappled for something to say, but fate intervened and spared him the trouble.  The elevator bell sounded, interrupting Barba’s attempt at a reply.  They disembarked together, heading down the hall toward his office.  They’d have a drink, hopefully talk about something happier.  Flirt for a bit.  The prospect was more than enough for Sonny, who needed very little other than Rafael’s company to pull him out of the bleak mood threatening to overtake him. 

For a moment it was only the sounds of their shoes on the polished marble tiles between then but then Barba cleared his throat and tried again, determined to communicate something that wasn’t clear to Sonny until he spoke.

“You’re more than that,” Barba told him, stopping in place.  Sonny turned and frowned, confused when Barba reached out to grasp the crook of his arm.  “You’re more than just breeding stock with a temper.  To me, I mean.”

Sonny’s heart, the one Rafael Barba had won long ago, stuttered and fell helplessly at the man’s feet.

How could he do anything but want him?

“Oh yeah?” Sonny asked playfully, grinning.  Stepping a little too close, smiling a little too wide.  “How much more?”

It was a cheap play, flirting when Barba was moving out of his comfort zone to try and make him feel better, but this was the best way he could communicate that he was alright.  That the comfort was sweet but unnecessary because Sonny had him and that was all he needed.  

Really, he didn’t expect much.  He expected a snide remark about how he was a perfectly adequate delivery boy when the occasion arose but it didn’t come.  Instead Barba closed the distance between them and Sonny felt the first glance of Barba’s lips across his own.

Sonny had been waiting for this moment for years.

Years of pining hadn’t prepared him for it in the least.

Nothing could have prepared him for the press of Barba’s lips over his, soft and tentative despite the fact that he had to know how much Sonny wanted him.  Wanted this.  Sonny was happy to let him lead it, happy to enjoy the stunned, ecstatic warmth careening around in his chest.  His stomach headed for the floor and his heart headed for his throat and Sonny cradled Barba’s jaw in his hand like he was afraid to let go, afraid to miss even a second of this moment.

“More,” Barba finally breathed as he pulled away.  “Just… just more.”

“Yeah,” Sonny agreed as his hands found Barba’s hips, “You’re more too.”

If their first kiss cracked the floodgates, the second demolished them completely.

Sonny pulled his Omega closer, until their hips were flush, before backing Barba into the wall and dipping down again to taste him.  To trace the tip of his tongue across the seam of Barba’s lips, to feel for himself the fine tremor that tripped over Barba’s skin as he opened his mouth to Sonny.  The ADA tasted like coffee and sweet mint and the undeniable sweetness of an Omega, heightened by the scent of him blooming in the air around them now.  With every brush of lips, every sweep of his tongue, Sonny felt the heat beneath Barba’s skin grow.  Felt him harden against his hip, smelled his arousal building and rising off his skin like smoke that drew him in like a moth to flame.

Nothing had ever felt like this.

If he wanted Rafael Barba, he’d never wanted anything else in his life because it didn’t feel even remotely close to the petty inclinations he’d had before now.

“Carisi,” Barba gasped prettily when Sonny let his mouth wander elsewhere, first the very corner of Rafael’s lips and then the curve of his jaw.

“Sonny.”

“What?”

“Sonny.  My name is Sonny,” he reminded the man, burying his nose in the soft slope of his neck and breathing deep.  “How are we going to pull off a date if you can’t call me by my first name?”

“Sonny isn’t your first name,” Barba scoffed but it came out much too distracted to be believable.  Then the words sunk in fully and Sonny could feel his eyes snap open.  “Wait, what do you mean a  _ date _ ?” 

“Dinner, drinks.  Maybe dessert if we’re feeling daring,” Sonny answered sarcastically.  “I’m sure you’ve heard of it at some point.”

“You want to go on a date with me?  A real one?”

Sonny pulled back, looked him in the eye.

“Are we speaking two different languages here?” he asked on a laugh.  “Why wouldn’t I want to go on a date with you?”

“Dates are for people who don’t know each other.  We’ve known each other for years.”

“We’ve worked together for years.  That’s different than knowing someone.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“And you’re just looking to take advantage of my sensitive nature and get laid,” Sonny teased, nipping at the skin on the underside of Barba’s jaw. 

“You make it sound like that’s a problem.”

“It’s not,” Sonny admitted, “I just prefer my relationships to start a little differently.  Unless, of course, a relationship isn’t what you had in mind.”

Please, for the love of God, let him not have misread this.

“Of course this is a relationship,” Barba replied, “But I’d prefer it started in bed.  Or on my couch.  Or desk.  Or the floor, so long as it’s in the next five minutes.”

“Such a romantic, Barba.  Remind me never to send you flowers so I don’t have to hear the speech about how they just die and there’s no point.”

“Rafael.” 

“Hmm?”

“You can call me Rafael,” he replied with a sinfully slow roll of his hips to drive the point home and Sonny’s eyes threatened to close.  “If we’re going to go through with some ridiculous farce of a date.”

“See, that’s the spirit.”

Barba -  _ Rafael  _ \- rolled his eyes again and this time Sonny chased away the cynicism with another kiss.  A long one, tinged with the years of longing that had brought them to this moment.   _ Their  _ moment, in a deserted hallway late on a Friday night, with Sonny seriously considering throwing all his plans to the wind and claiming his Omega on a leather couch where no one could hear Rafael begging for him.  That need was secondary, though, because for the moment he had everything he really needed already in his arms.

“Come on,” he said finally, combing his fingers through the spray of silver hairs at Rafael’s temple.  “Let’s go have that drink.”

Stunning green eyes flitted open slowly, meeting his with an amused glare.  “Does that count as a date?”

“Nope.”

“You’re serious about this, aren’t you?” Rafael marveled.  

“Yeah, I am,” he said and stepped back, already missing the warmth of the man he’d left.  “I want to do this right, Raf.  And that starts with me taking you on a date.  Showing you off a little, because you’re a catch and I’m proud that you’d stoop to being seen with me.”

The annoyance in the Omega’s eyes softened to something approximating affection and then Rafael nodded, straightening from where Sonny had pressed him into the wall.  

“Fine.  We’ll do it your way,” he allowed before amending, “But if at any time you decide to stop being ridiculous let me know.  The couch is still available.”

Sonny snorted, floored at how happy he was to be having this argument.

“Yeah,” he laughed and fell into step beside Rafael as they headed to his office.  “Yeah, I’ll let you know.”

 


End file.
